Millions of people worldwide are working remotely since the deadly Covid-19 pandemic struck this planet in early 2020. And despite nearly most of 2021 having gone past, we’re still living in the new normal that almost dictates that we all work remote.
Earlier, several companies that had inhibitions about their employees working from home are now actually encouraging remote work. And not without reason. There’re as many as six top remote work statistics that prove increased productivity among both- the employee and the employer.
In fact, organizations as well as their staff are gaining immensely from remote work. In this article, I’ll discuss the top six remote work statistics that prove increased productivity.
Before I go on to write about these six top remote work statistics that actually prove that productivity is on the rise, here’s something important to remember. The trend of remote working has been around since the last at least one decade, thanks to the Internet and newer technologies. However, remote work as such was never as popular as it’s become now. And these statistics will also prove why remote work is now the way of choice for employers and employees.
The average commuting time in America increased to a new high of 27.6 minutes per employee in 2019 compared over the earlier 25 minutes. This means, an average American would have to travel for close to an hour- or about 54.12 minutes, five days a week in getting from home to office and back. This means, work worth $2.4 billion is lost every year due to delays caused by commutes. Additionally, Americans lose a combined 1.8 billion man-hours of work every year only due to commutes.
Furthermore, employees that commute often experience stress as they walk into offices for the day’s work.
In stark contrast, remote work has almost eliminated long commutes since most employees now work from home. They’re able to save the time of average 54.12 minutes per day, which adds up to 270.6 minutes during the five-day work per week.
According to data, at least 14 percent of working Americans have changed jobs in a bid to shorten commutes. And long commutes is the main cause for employee attrition, finds a study.
As a result, employers are experiencing higher productivity among employees. Instead of wasting time on lengthy commutes, employees are now spending it on fitness activities such as jogging or walking or exercising. This leaves them free of stress when they start working for the day.
Global Workplace Analytics report states, businesses lose $600 billion a year to workplace distractions. In stark contrast, remote workers have at least 35 percent to 40 percent more productivity than office-bound workers. During 2020 and the first half of 2021, thousands of businesses worldwide managed to save such wanton waste of money due to workplace distractions.
Understandably, there’re also distractions at home, which is usually the place from where remote workers function. However, by maintaining strict work discipline, remote workers are able to overcome such distractions, which they couldn’t do at their workplaces or offices. As a result, remote working does prove increase productivity.
Workplace distractions often add up as disturbances from telephone calls to others, use of washrooms, smoking and coffee breaks and calls by bosses, chatter with colleagues and so on. These are conspicuously absent at home since remote workers also train their family to observe office like ambience at home during workhours.
The American Management Association (AMA) reports that a whopping 78 percent of employees that call in sick aren’t actually ill or anything like that. Instead, they call in sick because they’ve domestic issues to settle, personal work or just to de-stress themselves with a day or two away from work.
In the US, unscheduled leave or absence on grounds of sickness costs a company about $1,800 per employee per year. This adds up to a staggering $300 billion per year for all companies operating in the US, finds a report by Global Workplace Analytics.
A study by AMA found 63 percent reduction in unscheduled leave and absences among companies that allow remote work. In some cases, companies could eliminate as much as 99 percent of unscheduled sick leave because their employees are working remote.
In fact, remote workers also work when they’re sick because they don’t have to leave the comfort of their homes. Studies also found the remote workers bounce back to work more quickly from a sickness or even a surgery.
A survey by freelancing marketplace, FlexJobs.com found that 95 percent of respondents of a survey said their productivity is higher while working from home. And 51 percent said they’re being more productive to their employers due to remote work.
The FlexJobs.com survey also found the reasons for higher productivity among remote workers. These are, more focused time with fewer interruptions, quiet work environment combined with comfortable workspace and not being involved in office politics.
At the same time, working parents also found that their productivity is on the rise despite having to homeschool their kids. About 49% of working mothers and 50% of working fathers said during the survey that working from home was the main reason for their higher productivity, despite domestic commitments such as homeschooling or even babysitting.
A Boston Consulting Group study found that 75 percent of employees working remotely were able to maintain or improve productivity on their routine work as individuals, while 51 percent were able to improve performance on collective or group tasks and projects.
This is something that might interest everyone. The ‘State of Remote Work’ report by the Owl Labs states, remote workers earn more than $100,000 per year, which is double or even more than the income of regular, office going employees.
The report also mentions that 74 percent of remote workers make less than $100,000 per year while 26 percent earn more than this figure. However, among office workers, 92 percent of employees earn less than $100,000 while only eight percent earn above that figure.
Furthermore, PayScale.com analyzed thousands of salaries across America. The analysis shows that remote workers earn 8.3 percent more income than office-going workers, despite having the same job, educational qualifications and skills. PayScale.com also finds that remote workers are able to save up to $4,000 more compared over their office bound counterparts.
The Workforce Happiness Index finds that remote workers got 75 points on the 100-point happiness scale while office-bound employees could muster up only 71 percent. Overall, the survey found that people working from home had better job satisfaction.
There’re several reasons for the job satisfaction, which leads to better productivity. One of them is the ability to work according to flexible hours. Remote workers are thus able to give time for personal fitness and enjoy healthy family lives, which translates as overall job satisfaction. You can find out all of these with well-formed employee happiness survey questions.
In Conclusion
If you’re considering working from home or remote work, now is the right time. In fact, real estate prices are also dropping as remote workers leave pricier houses and relocate elsewhere with economical housing facilities. Employers too are benefitting from higher productivity from remote workers since there’s lesser absenteeism and loss of man-hours on account of longer commutes. They’re also able to get work done more quickly from remote workers, due to the higher comfort levels of their home-based workplaces. In fact, a PwC survey of 669 CEOs finds that 78 percent of them now favor giving remote work after seeing productivity surge exponentially during 2020 and 2021. And remote workers are also willing to take a small pay cut to keep the facility of working from home.
Ends,
